Elon Musk contemplates the future of Twitter; aliens talk to company employees.

Elon Musk first spoke to Twitter employees on Thursday. It said Twitter needed to cut staff but offered several new details about the social media company's proposed $44 billion (approximately $3,443,446) acquisition.

Musk appeared via a 10-minute video call in what turned out to be a free Q&A session hosted by the Twitter CEO. Musk reflected on the existence of extraterrestrials and other extraterrestrial civilizations and his view that Twitter should help raise awareness."

The Tesla CEO, who is also the rocket company SpaceX, told Twitter he wanted to grow the service's user base from 229 million to at least 1 billion people, saying advertising would remain important to the company. However, he previously said he believed Twitter should not show ads, according to Reuters's audio recording of the meeting.

"I think advertising is essential for Twitter," Musk said. "I'm not against advertising. I might talk to an advertiser and say, "Hey, let's make the ad as fun as possible."

Musk, who was expected to offer reassurance to Twitter staff when they first met, did not provide an update on closing the deal.

He repeated that he was still trying to learn more about bots and spam Twitter accounts, which he described as his biggest concern.

When asked if he expected layoffs, Musk said there needed to be "some rationalization in staffing and spending."

"Right now, costs exceed revenues," he said, adding, "Anyone who has... made a significant contribution need not worry."

During the session, Twitter workers turned to Slack's internal channels en masse, posting memes and complaining that Musk didn't provide helpful feedback about his vision for the company and team member compensation.

They also asked Slack moderators to update Musk's views on remote work, given that Twitter currently allows employees to work remotely or in an office with relative freedom.